Flash and Scream
by RandomPairingsWitch
Summary: Lydia meets Barry when she's twenty-two. Stiles works and lives in Central City now, and she's visiting when she first sees Barry in a coffee shop. And thus a ridiculously unexpected friendship is built up. But they both have secrets to keep, and it's along with the return of a thought-to-be-dead enemy that everything is revealed.
1. Chapter 1

**This is a really strange pairing but please stick with it. They're two of my faves and they both need someone who'll treat them right. **

**There's more to this- like, a lot more. There's a whole storyline in the works- so if you want to read it, please comment!**

**If anyone is wondering about my Hunger Games AU, it'll be up soon. Maybe. It's going to be multi-chapter so it may take a little longer to upload.**

**Anyway...**

**Lydia meets Barry when she's twenty-two.**

She's visiting Stiles in his new city where he's just got a job at the local Police Department. It's a lovely city, with a flowering park and lots of soaring glass buildings that make Lydia feel small in a good way. There's this small coffee shop that Stiles had introduced her to on her first day visiting and it's when she's returning to it alone that she sees him.

He's intensely cute, is her first reaction, with brown fluffy hair, a massive smile on his face, and a awkward body that kind of reminds her of Stiles. He's talking to a really pretty girl who has dark hair and skin and eyes and glossy lips and is wearing a cute outfit. She obviously works in the shop, from her apron, and Lydia is instantly jealous.

She approaches the bar and orders from a guy, who begins making her coffee. A couple of seconds in, however, and the really pretty girl takes over. The cute guy who was talking to her follows her like a lost puppy, with massive heart eyes, and Lydia immediately picks up the unrequited-love thing going on.

"Hey," the girl greets as she forces a lid on Lydia's coffee. "I haven't seen you around before."

"Oh, I'm just visiting," Lydia smiles as she hands over her money and takes her cup. "My friend, Stiles, works with the police here."

"Wait, Stiles?" the guy interrupts suddenly, eyeing her with a new interest.

"Barry works with the police too," the girl explains, an apology in her voice as she glares at Barry for his interruption.

Barry, Lydia thinks with a smile. It matches his cute face and awkward mannerisms.

"I've worked with Stiles," Barry says. "He's really cool."

Lydia's smile turns into more of a grimace as she says, "Don't let him here you say that or his head will get even bigger," she jokes, and Barry laughs. It is the cutest thing she has ever heard and Lydia hates herself for feeling this sappy about another guy.

"I'd better go," she says suddenly, checking her watch. "My train leaves soon. It was nice meeting you..."

"Iris," the girl offers. Barry also tells her his name again, and she introduces herself as Lydia, before turning, waving and leaving the shop with a massive grin on her face.


	2. Chapter 2

The next day, Lydia rings Stiles for their daily conversation, whilst she's aimlessly wandering around her house, and he tells her that Barry mentioned that he'd seen her.

"Oh?" Lydia says, trying not to sound too interested.

"Yeah, he said you seemed nice," Stiles said. "And then he asked if we were dating."

Lydia laughs at that. The number of times she and Stiles have been mistaken for a couple is monumental. "He seemed pretty nice, too. Also, he had a totally bad crush on that girl he was with- Iris."

"Iris is dating Eddie," Stiles explains. "He's this really buff blonde guy on the force. You'd like him, he's totally your type."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Lydia demands.

Stiles immediately sounds apologetic. "Nothing. Just that... nothing. He's nice is all I was saying."

"It better be, Stilinksi," she says hotly, making her way to her fridge so she can grab her Ben and Jerry's. It's a night in for her. "I have to go, now. I have a date with my ice cream."

"Bye," Stiles says and hastily ends the call, while Lydia cackles at his pain.

Three weeks later and she gets a phone call, again from Central City, but this time it isn't from Stiles. She's just got in after work and is about to kick back and relax, when her mobile starts belting out its default ringtone; a sure sign that it's from an unknown number.

"Hello?" she answers once she decides to pick it up.

"Is this Miss Lydia Martin?" an unfamiliar voice asks and she is immediately on alert.

"Yes?"

"I'm afraid I'm calling from Central City Hospital. Your friend, Mr Stilinski, has been involved in an accident."

Lydia feels like her throat's constricting and she can't breathe properly. "What kind of accident," she manages to squeak out.

"A drunk-driver was going to fast and knocked him over while he was walking home from work," the voice explains sympathetically. "I'm afraid you'll have to come over here if you want any more information."

"I'll... I'll be right there," she stutters, ends the call and immediately rings the Sheriff. Answerphone. Next she dials Scott.

"Lydia? Is everything-?"

"Stiles has been in an accident," she relays as she storms out of her house. "I'm going over to the hospital now, but you're going to need to tell his Dad and then bring him over."

"What kind of-?"

"Nothing supernatural," she soothes, climbing into her car. "At least, I don't think so. I'll find out once I'm there. Just get his Dad. I'll call you when I know more."

She hangs up before he can say anything else and slams her foot on her accelerator. It takes her about an hour to get there- it should have taken her longer, but she's going over the limit most of the way- and when she bursts into the hospital, she's told to calm down and people try to make her sit and wait. And then Barry appears at the end of the corridor, grabs her arm and shuffles her through to Stiles's room, flashing his police badge at anyone who tries to stop them.

Stiles is led on the bed, not at all conscious, with a bruised face, and Lydia finds it hard to not cry as soon as she spots him. Barry gently lets go of her arm, and she turns to him.

"What happened?"

"Stiles was walking home when a drunk driver careered into him," Barry says, avoiding her eyes as though he feels guilty somehow.

"Do you know who the driver was?" Lydia asks, and Barry winces as though he is afraid of the answer.

"Once he knocked Stiles over, the driver lost control altogether and crashed into the wall," Barry explains. "He died on impact."

Lydia looks back to Stiles and subconsciously rubs her arms. "Do you know who they were?"

Barry looks around, to make sure they're alone, and then brings a picture out of his pocket. "Do you recognise him?"

Lydia breathes a sigh of relief. "No. So it was all just an accident?"

Barry shrugs. "I suppose. Does Stiles have anyone who'd want to hurt him?"

Lydia almost laughs. There is a list almost as large as Lydia herself of people who would willingly want to hurt Stiles. But Barry can't know. "Not that I know of. I mean, Stiles is a decent guy who mostly keeps to himself," she says instead, and Barry nods in understanding.

They're interrupted, then, by raised voices and they go out to see Scott and the Sheriff in the corridor, both arguing about being allowed to see Stiles. Barry flashes his badge at the doctors and they're let through. Scott runs to Lydia and hugs her tightly. She nearly cries then- Scott has this super power where he puts so much emotion into everything he does- but holds herself together for the Sheriff, who immediately runs past them to Stiles.

Barry relates exactly what happened to Sheriff Stilinksi, who then turns on his detective mode and questions the poor guy. Lydia and Scott look on.

"Think it was anything supernatural?" Scott asks, and Lydia hesitates before shaking her head.

"It sounds like just a regular accident," she says honestly. "But..."

"But it's us, right?" Scott laughs halfheartedly. "It could only be supernatural."

The Sheriff leaves the room and speaks to them both. "I'm going to go and find someone who'll know a little more. Do you mind staying with him?"

Scott and Lydia agree and the Sheriff moves out. Scott goes to Stiles and sits in the chair next to his bed. Lydia stands in the doorway, not wanting to impose on their moment. Although Lydia has become amazing friends with both of the boys, they still have this unspoken bond; more like brothers than friends. It's uncomfortable to be a witness to.

Barry seems to notice this, and offers to take her to get some coffee. Lydia suspects it's just so that he can see Iris, but she agrees. She lets Scott know where they're going and then she leaves them to it.


	3. Chapter 3

**Thank you for all your amazing reviews and favourites and follows. It makes me so happy to know that you all enjoy reading this stuff!**

When they reach the coffee shop, Lydia is surprised to see that Iris is not working. Then again, she realises, it is very late. Barry finds them a table and they sit in silence for a while, until a waitress appears and asks them what they want. After they've ordered and their drinks have come, Barry looks at her and asks,

"Are you okay?"

Lydia contemplates the question for a moment. Normally it would be asked to make the other person feel better; that they had actually tried to help the person who was obviously not okay. But the way that Barry looks at her, genuinely concerned, lets her know that he is actually anxious for her.

She sips her coffee. "Yeah. I mean, Stiles is my friend so obviously I'm concerned, but... he's gonna live, right?"

Barry nods and tries a genuine smile, which makes Lydia's stomach flutter weirdly. "Definitely."

They're interrupted- yet again- by a tall, dark man in suspenders with a police badge attached to his trousers. He looks first at Lydia and then turns to Barry.

"I heard that you let friends and family see him before they were allowed," the man lectures with a raised eyebrow and his arms crossed.

"Joe," Barry sighs. "I- er... yeah?"

Joe looks like he's trying to refrain himself from rolling his eyes too dramatically. "Barry, we talked about this," he warns.

"Come on, Joe, they wouldn't let her in and they were being kind of aggressive," Barry argues. "She's practically family anyway."

Lydia looks at him for a second with a quizzical look, confused as to why he was lying to protect her, but then regains composure as Joe turns to her again.

"You're Lydia Martin?" he asks. "The girl they rang after the accident?"

Lydia nods. "Yeah."

"I'm Detective Joe West," he greets. "I'm heading the investigation behind Mr Stilinksi's case."

"Nice to meet you," Lydia smiles, and suddenly is horrifically aware of how awful she must look. Having barely got through her door after work, her hair was ratty and her make up smudged and her clothes rumpled. Joe doesn't seem to notice any of this, though, as he launches into questions.

"Does Stiles have any previous experience with accidents like this?" Joe asks, and Lydia pales.

"Er... kind of," she says, slowly so that she can think of explanations and alternatives. "He's, er... he's not ever had the best of luck when it comes to accidents."

"What do you mean?" Barry suddenly looks incredibly interested in what she has to say, and she thinks again of how horrid she must look.

"Well, the town we're from," Lydia says. "It's kind of a... beacon for bad luck."

"Beacon Hills, right?" Joe asks, and she nods. "I've heard some of the horror stories. The Sheriff's department blew up a while ago, didn't it?"

"Yeah," Lydia confirms. "And my friend, Allison, got killed there." Even though it's been a few years since Allison died, talking about it still gives her a lump in her throat. "A lot of bad things happen, and Stiles is the Sheriff's son, so he gets involved a lot. Plus, he's a nosy little beggar who's, like, a magnet for bad luck."

Barry and Joe both smile at that. And then Joe's pager buzzes. And their faces fall.

"What is it?"

Lydia hears it from where she's sat. And then she feels it, building up inside her, while the voices get louder in her head.

_"Stilinski taken a turn for the worse."_

"On my way," Joe says in a low voice and Lydia needs to escape now. She needs to tell Scott.

She stumbles back from the table and her coffee falls, as if in slow motion, exploding on the floor and spilling across it.. She clamps a hand to her mouth and flees the shop, running into an alley and panting against a wall. The voices threaten to overwhelm her and she needs to scream now. She fumbles with her phone, dialing Scott's number with shaking hands.

"Lydia? Are you-"

"Scott," she cries. "Scott, I can feel it. I can- Stiles-"

"Lydia, do you need to scream?" Scott asks with worry in his voice.

"Scott," she's sobbing into her hand now, and it's quite literally on her lips. The phone drops and she bends over as if she's going to throw up.

And then she screams.


	4. Chapter 4

Scott finds her, in the alley still, unconscious and horribly still. He scoops her up in his arms and runs, screaming for help, as she hangs limp. She can feel it, but at the same time, it is like she isn't herself at all.

"Scott," she mumbles and he chokes out a sob.

"Lydia- I thought you- are you okay?"

"Stiles?" she forces out.

"Stiles is okay," Scott laughs and cries at the same time. "He's alright. Lydia, I don't know what-"

"Lydia!" another familiar voice shouts- Barry- and Lydia hears footsteps running to her. "What happened? Is she okay?"

"Lydia has these... they're like seizures," Scott lies. "They happen when she's feeling a lot of stress and she just kind of has to scream. She's okay, though. It's nothing fatal or anything."

Lydia asks Scott to put her down and he does, although she stills leans on him heavily, her mind still foggy.

"So who was it for, then?" she asks Scott, forgetting for a moment that Barry is still there. He doesn't seem to think what she's saying is strange, though.

"I don't know," Scott says. "We need to get you somewhere so you can recover."

"Mine and Joe's house isn't far," Barry offers. "There's a couch there."

Scott gives Barry a massive grateful smile. "That would be amazing."

Lydia wakes up twenty minutes later feeling refreshed and very comfortable. She sits up- and remembers exactly what happened. Quickly, she scrambles to her feet- and is met by a firm hand pushing her back.

"Woah," Barry cautions. "You're not getting away that easily. You need to sit and rest."

"I'm fine," Lydia insists. "How's Stiles? Where's Scott?"

"Scott went to see Stiles." At her alarmed expression, he insists, "He's fine, but Scott just wanted to check on him. Stiles is recovering. He woke up for about ten minutes and then slipped back into unconsciousness."

Lydia sits back heavily and sighs. "Sorry about the whole... freaking out coffee thing," she apologises.

"You don't need to apologise," he insists, handing her a fresh mug of something warm. She sips it and immediately feels a million times better.

"What is this stuff?" she wonders, and Barry grins at her.

"Fruit tea," he explains proudly. "It's healing properties are magical."

Lydia laughs at his expression. "They really are," she drains the rest of it in one. "So what exactly happened with Stiles?"

Barry sighs. "You won't give up, will you?" He sits and rests his mug on the table. "All I could find out was that his heart rate dropped significantly for a moment and everyone panicked. He's recovering, though, and Scott and his Dad are with him. In fact-" He gets out his phone and checks his texts. "Joe just texted me. Stiles is awake and they're officially letting people see him now."

"Can we go?" Lydia asks eagerly.

"Well..." Barry thinks back to Scott's surprisingly menacing face as he warned him not to let Lydia leave. And then he looks at Lydia's face and decides he can't say no. "Alright. But you have to protect me from Scott when he realises I let you go."

When they said that Stiles took a turn for the worse, they didn't mention that he had been relocated, and so when Barry and Lydia arrive at the hospital, they have to leave almost immediately when they find out he'd been moved.

"But where have they taken him?" Lydia demands in a very condescending voice, that makes the receptionist look slightly intimidated.

"S.T.A.R. Labs," she says. "Dr. Wells came and asked for him to be removed."

"Dr. Wells?" Barry exclaims, and he just shakes his head at Lydia's confused expression. "Thank you very much."

"Who's Dr. Wells?" Lydia asks as they start on their walk.

"He's... a friend of mine," Barry says. "About a year ago, there was this freak accident at S.T.A.R. Labs, where this particle accelerator blew up and a lot of people got hurt. I was in a coma for nine months."

"What?" Lydia splutters. "Woah, that's... I'm sorry."

Barry shrugs. "It's fine. Anyway, so instead of being at a normal hospital, they took me to S.T.A.R. Labs to make sure that I wasn't affected by anything."

"I think I heard about the particle accelerator," Lydia comments. "Wait- as in, Dr. Harrison Wells?"

Barry stops and frowns at her. "Yeah, how did you-"

"The Harrison Wells?" Lydia looks practically starstruck. "Wow. I'm a massive fan of his."

"You're into science?"

Lydia finds herself almost laughing and denying it; she considers lying and saying that she thinks that Dr. Wells must be a massive film star or something. But then she catches herself and smiles. "Yeah. Well, more Chemistry than any other science, but I am pretty good."

She sets off walking without him and Barry catches himself actually physically gaping after her, before he shakes himself and runs to catch up with her.

Lydia is, at first, in awe of S.T.A.R. Labs. It almost makes her cry when she sees all the wasted potential. All the resources that are no longer in use. And then she sees Stiles and she wants to cry for a whole different reason.

Because he is alive, and he is awake, and he is looking right at her with his usual sheepish grin. She runs straight into his waiting arms.

"Are you okay?" she fusses, and he nods and gestures behind her.

"All thanks to Doctor Wells." Lydia swivels round to see her idol behind her. He's dark-haired, wears glasses and has this kind of permanent grimace on his face. And he's also in a wheelchair.

"Dr. Wells, I'm Lydia Martin," she introduces. "I'm Stiles's friend and a massive fan. I followed your work on the particle accelerator."

"Nice to meet you, Lydia," he says and even his voice is slightly creepy. "Stiles has told me some of your accomplishments, and I have to say I'm impressed."

Lydia smiles a small smile, and then notices two more people in the background, both talking to Barry. The first is a woman with curly dark-blonde hair and a grim face, while the second is a boy- man doesn't seem right, even though he's clearly an adult- with an impish grin and long curly dark hair. They both seem to be good friends with Barry.

"So, are you in college, Lydia?" Dr. Wells asks and immediately the other three wander over to hear the answer while Lydia and Stiles both look anywhere than at them.

"Er... no, I'm not," Lydia says eventually. "Never was. Never will be."

"Why?" Barry asks, looking incredibly curious.

"Lots of family problems." It's the excuse all the pack use when they're asked, and it's mostly true. Lydia tried to go, once. She got into all the high-end colleges, but she only lasted three months before being kidnapped. So no one tried again, and they've all accepted the fact that they'll never go. Instead, most of them get job experience with help from the Sheriff, and they get good enough small-town jobs to last them. Stiles is the first- after Isaac, who returned a year later from France- to properly move out. And, up until that point, everything had been going well. And then Stiles's accident had happened.

"That's a shame," Dr. Wells said, although he didn't sound sorry at all. "You see like you had a very bright future ahead of you."

"Actually, now I work with Stiles's Dad, who's the Sheriff," Lydia argued, suddenly very defensive. "So I wouldn't say it was a waste at all. In fact, I feel like I have a better education now than I would have if I went to college. Plus, it's a lot of money to learn things I already know, or I can learn it myself."

The others look shocked for a second, and then the woman surges forwards and introduces herself. "I'm Dr. Caitlin Snow," she says. "And that was very well said."

"Thanks," Lydia smiles. Normally the reaction is much more like Dr. Wells- a shocked, slightly offended look, as though she has betrayed him personally for not wasting thousands of pounds every year for something she could get a job without.

"This is Cisco," Barry introduces, pushing the boy forwards, who is staring at Lydia with something akin to awe.

"Hi," he breathes, wiggling his fingers in a little wave, and Barry rolls his eyes.

"So, can Stiles come home now?" Lydia asks.

"Actually, some new evidence came up about the driver," the Sheriff interrupts Dr. Wells as he strolls in with Scott and Joe West. He smiles at Lydia and Stiles, but it's not exactly comforting. "Apparently she was someone we know."

Lydia pales and Scott's expression is not reassuring as he opens his mouth to say:

"Jennifer Blake."

Sorry it's a little long but I have lost all control of my writing ability recently :) I put this on my fanfiction blog on tumblr too (head over to .com to give it some love). And if you want to ask me any questions, I'd suggest asking me on my blog. Or on my normal tumblr blog which is .com

Again, thanks so much for all your reviews and favourites! It keeps me alive


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